PeaPickin'

Even with neglect, a plant knows what to do. I'm only getting to the garden maybe once a week and it shows. Last week I sprayed herbicide on the weeds because they were so thick I knew I was beyond pulling or tilling them up. It looks pitiful with all that deadness, but I can at least get to most of the plants now. Started picking a few tomatoes, though I'm pretty convinced a whole bunch will ripen while we're at RMSP next week, if the 99 degree temps don't do them in first. The deer are enjoying the purple hull peas, though they left me enough to gather a big handful. Lady peas are just starting to flower. Butter beans are showing some buds. Cucumbers are flowering.

 I remain hopeful. 

Catch up

This is my fourth year at the SFCG and has to be the latest for getting started. Plots were just plowed and marked in the past two weeks which is putting me behind before I even get started. The volunteers work really hard and the weather has just not cooperated for the county to get the field plowed. I sprayed the weeds last week and started tilling. Yesterday and today I plant. 

We have roughly ten rows. Facing from the front, the far right two longest rows have lady peas. The first row on the left has about 5-6 ft of butter beans with the remainder left fallow to act as a barrier to all the weeds. The second row is another 5-6 feet of butter beans then 10 feet of purple hull peas. Row three is a purple hull " pink-eyes." I'm leaving a little extra space then rows four and five are for tomatoes, except the start of row five has three pepper plants. There are currently 21 tomato plants in the ground. Row six is extra wide which will be nice for cucumbers and squash. Row 7 & 8 are down with lady peas. Those are the longest rows at about30 feet each. 

Beautiful flowers

I'm glad I planted the mixed flower seed mix. The giant zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos are especially pretty right now. They bring the butterflies. Today a black and blue one fluttered around. 

The plot is just a mess! It's been nearly two weeks since I went out there and over three since I really worked it.  The weeds and grasses have nearly taken over, but the peas and tomatoes are fighting hard to maintain their spots. 

Today I picked two baskets of tomatoes and peas plus several ears of corn, two delicata squash and a mess of butter beans. 

And tonight, I froze a bag of corn and shelled peas for two hours. It'll be worth it this fall. 

You Can Tell It's Been Cool

The polar vortex after massive rainfall is very noticeable in the garden. The plants are lush and green. The lady peas are so thick, you can't even see the rows. But, they are missing the heat because there has been little flower production so far. The corn taste good, but looks a little weird. Instead of tassels up top, some of the plants have skinny corn cobs instead. Some of the cobs have a few tough purplish kernels. The tomatoes are coming along. I picked two shirttails full of cherry tomatoes and a couple of the smaller slicers that were starting to turn. Had to get a couple of green ones for broiled green tomatoes for dinner. We also had cornonthecob, stewed San Marzano tomatoes, broiled yellow squash and sliced cucumbers. 

What's growing

The tomatoes are looking great. One row are all from HD. The other row are the ones I grew from seed except for one or two that came up from last year. I labeled all the peat pots, but over the weeks before planting it got difficult to read them. Here are my best guess as to what is in the last three rows:

Garden last three rows

First:

Two jalepeno

Yellow pear

Mr. Stripey

San. Marzano

San Marzano

Super sweet 100 red

Golden pear

Parks whopper

Yellow sun sweet cherry

??better boy??

Big boy

Second row

4 California wonder bell pepper

Gypsy pepper

Red bell pepper

*space*

Haricot vert green beans--did not sprout

Henderson baby butter beans 

Third row

Big boy

Indigo blue cherry --died

Mortgage lifter

??sun sweet??

Big red heirloom

Mortgage lifter

Mortgage lifter 

Mortgage lifter

Unknown

Brandywine

Brandywine

Sunsugar

Last two are unknown

Frankie Baker

I met Mr. Baker again. We had forgotten each other's name so we reintroduced ourselves and he offered me some squash. His plot is behind Caroline and Greg's. His corn is almost ready to harvest (jealous)👺. 

I did take a couple of squash and zucchini and if he offers corn in a couple of weeks, I'll take that too. 

I got the sign in the ground today and brought home a couple of fists full of snow peas and a handful of green pea. 

The tomatoes look very healthy and most have multiple blossoms. Lady peas are so easy and are about 8" tall.  This week I'll be working on watering and weeding. 

A full day's work

The beautiful sun was out all day. The morning temp in the low 60's made a full day at the garden a real treat. I was there from 8:30-3:00 with a quick lunch break at Burger King. I tilled the entire plot then hand weeded the corn (again), the tomatoes, squash and most of the peas. The water was off so I couldn't soak in the fertilizer. It can keep a couple of days.